1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a technique of system control of an information apparatus, which executes image processing with software, including decoding, and more particularly to a system control technique, which can handle a temperature abnormality of a processor with an appropriate software control in consideration of the convenience of the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as semiconductor manufacturing and information processing techniques have improved, the use of software application have expanded. Software is not limited to certain types of information processing apparatuses, such as personal computers and PDAs, but has been extended to other types of information processing apparatuses such as, for example, digital television sets. Further, since the contents processed by software have been more and more complicated, heat generated by a processor has been increasing. Therefore, it is very important to consider how to handle the heat.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-305268 discloses an information processing system, in which a rise in temperature of a semiconductor chip is dealt with in stages as follows: (1) the wind velocity of a cooling fan is increased; (2) a dummy operation is inserted to lower the operation speed of the system; and (3) the operation frequency or power supply is lowered.
Conventionally, there has been a demand to suppress noise (rotation sound of the cooling fan) to a minimum, for example, late at night. Recently, in addition, there have been many cases in which software carries out a process which requires real-time execution, such as image processing to receive and play back a television broadcast.
Under these circumstances, the control in handing heat generated by the processor, for example, increase of the wind velocity of the cooling fan, should be performed in consideration of the situation that changes every moment.